Once it symbolized a city's success. Now it's a monument to its failure: Eerie photos of Michigan's abandoned Silverdome reveal dire straits of Detroit

In its heyday, the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, hosted the Super Bowl, a pope, the NBA finals, Led Zeppelin, Elvis, WrestleMania and dozens of other world-class acts and sporting events. It's most recent use, however, was as a three-screen drive-in movie theater.

That, of course, was in the years before the stadium was auctioned off piece-by-piece and abandoned. Now, what once was one of the premier venues in the world is a tattered, empty reminder of the stadium's memorable past - and of the dismal economy in Michigan.

In 2001, the stadium's full-time tenant, the Detroit Lions, moved to Ford Field in Detroit. The Silverdome has had an uncertain fate ever since, as the city tried to find use for it - including monster truck rallies, boxing matches and as a drive-in theater - and the population in Pontiac dwindled.

In January of 2013 - as the economy in Michigan had essentially bottomed out - the roof of the Silverdome was deflated. In March of 2013, the owners announced that they would be auctioning off pieces of the stadium, including seats and other fixtures.

Since, the stadium has essentially been left to rot, with pieces of the roof now torn off completely and debris throughout.

In May, the website Detroiturbex.com - a website devoted to landmarks throughout Detroit and the surrounding areas - released several photos of the stadium in its current state. The images offer an eerie, empty look at a stadium that once held nearly 100,000 people.

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Sad: In this photo, the roof of the stadium has been blown almost completely off

Heyday: The stadium's permanent tenant, the Detroit Lions, moved to a new stadium in 2001, leaving behind the once iconic venue

Auction: In March, the owners of the stadium announced they were auctioning off pieces of the stadium - before essentially abandoning it